At a ceremony at Bowman Hall on Saturday, 235 residents, from dozens of countries around the world, became Australian citizens and enrolled to vote.

Professor Bashir said it was her greatest pleasure to visit "this splendid district of great significance in our history".

"We're all aware that Australia's identity is very unique," she said.

"We enjoy a quality of life universally respected and admired.

"Australia opens its arms and welcomes you." ...

A picture tells a story: another media outlet clinging onto old notions. The notion of immigrants assimilating to Aussie ways is long past in much of Sydney. Last time I visited Blacktown there were so few Aussies that talk of assimilation is ridiculous. The Aussies left there couldn't offer you much, unless you're interested in drugs.

The era of assimilation in Sydney is gone. Immigrants now do as they please. But the media keeps painting this old picture and will keep on doing so until one day a different headline appears like "younger Britons appear to be integrating less well than their parents" and all of a sudden there's a mad rush to avoid US style ghettos with talk of enforced "equality, participation and interaction". Segregation is inevitable and sticking a swagman's hat on a cute kid will not stop it.

LOCAL police have warned residents to be more security conscious at night after a spate of violent robberies over the weekend.

Around 4am Saturday a 34-year-old Mt Druitt man was found slipping in and out of consciousness at Quakers Hill Parkway by a passing motorist.

He suffered severe lacerations and a broken ankle. He told police he was attacked by a group of men.

Early Sunday morning, a 24-year-old Quakers Hill man was allegedly attacked by three youths on Quakers Rd. Police said he was punched in the head and body and dragged on to the roadway before the men stole his mobile phone.

Meanwhile, an Indian national was attacked and robbed of cash, a mobile and two cameras, as he left Blacktown station just after midnight last Sunday week...